Bohemian Karst

Cesky kras is a belt of Devonian and Silurian limestone along the Berounka south-west of Prague, protected since 1972, and it does three things at once. It is a landscape of white cliffs, dry gorges and steppe grassland with orchids and other lime-loving plants that are scarce elsewhere in Bohemia. It is a cave region: the Konepruske caves, discovered by quarrymen in 1950, run on three levels with a chamber of unusual bud-shaped calcite formations and a fifteenth-century counterfeiters' workshop found in one of them. And it is a geological reference of international standing - the boundary between the Silurian and Devonian periods is formally defined at Klonk near Suchomasty, a globally agreed marker point used worldwide, and the fossil beds were the life work of Joachim Barrande in the nineteenth century. Karlstejn castle stands above the valley and draws most of the visitors.

What you actually see

• Limestone gorges and cliffs - dry valleys and steppe grassland along the Berounka.
• Konepruske caves - three levels, bud-shaped calcite and a counterfeiters' workshop.
• A global geological marker - the Silurian-Devonian boundary defined at Klonk.
• Barrande's fossil beds - the beds that made Bohemian palaeontology.

When to go

April to October. A day.

Honest expectations

Caves are seen on guided tours with timed entry and book up at weekends. Karlstejn is extremely crowded in summer. Quarrying continues in parts of the area. Trails on limestone are slippery when wet.

Nearby

Karlstejn castle is above the valley; Beroun is upstream.